Diamond in the Rough
by Kaishi
Summary: Alexis is a shy senior at East High who always does the behind the scenes work at shows.  AKA she's a techie.  She also loves to dance, but doesn't want anybody to know it.  Well, this is what happens when one person finally finds out. NOT a MarySue


Whee! HSM fic. Um...so yes there is an original character in this - Alexis. I don't believe her to be a Mary Sue. In fact, she has lots of faults, so...yeah. I also don't consider her to be a self-insert as even in what I've written so far, her personality is VERY different from mine. Well, at least in several aspects. So basically, if I were to self insert, it would NOT be like her.

Disclaimer: I don't own HSM or any of the characters except the narrator. I own the storyline...barely. Disney owns HSM and all the characters, okay? I'm a poor college student who can't even afford lint a lot of the time. So, don't sue!

And real quick I'd like to thank my friend Kayla, keisuke-chan, for being my beta reader for this. Yay Kayla!

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I sighed. Rehearsal was taking forever and we weren't even progressing in the script. I was sitting in the middle of the auditorium about halfway back as I watched my theatre arts class attempt to run through a play we had written and were going to perform at the elementary school in two weeks. I had managed to weasel my way out of performing by volunteering to do tech work as I did it for all the other shows anyway. I was just glad to keep myself out of the spotlight. That was why I was sitting, watching rehearsal, and taking notes that would later help with lighting and props during the real show. 

Unfortunately, rehearsal wasn't going so well at that moment. There was more arguing going on than actual rehearsing. Ms. Darbus had left us alone for the class period while she was working on details for the upcoming spring musical. She had apparently trusted the class to be productive while she was gone, but I wasn't about to interrupt the latest argument to tell them that. Instead I just slouched down in my seat trying to make myself as invisible as possible. Being able to hide behind my mousy brown hair and thick glasses helped a bit too.

A moment later the bell for senior lunch rang and the room quickly emptied. I let out a sigh of relief as I shoved my script into my bag before checking to make sure the auditorium was really empty. Once I was sure I was completely alone, I went up to the stage and put a CD of classical music in the sound system. I stretched briefly before doing what I believed I was born to do. I danced.

Outside of school and tech work, dance was my life; in fact it took priority over the other two. When I was dancing I could just lose myself in the music and nothing else in the world mattered. That was why I danced every day during lunch period. Not only was it something that I loved to do, but it also meant that I didn't have to interact with people.

I was in the middle of practicing a set of fouette turns when I suddenly felt that I wasn't as alone as I had originally believed. I stopped mid turn and stared out over the seats in the auditorium. I felt my heart seemingly grow heavy and drop in my chest as I saw who it was. Ryan Evans. Yes, the guy who had gotten the lead in every show I had done tech for, and probably even before that. Actually, he had been beat out once a few years back by Troy Bolton, but now he was back and didn't seem to be moving out of the spotlight any time soon.

I felt my face involuntarily grow hot. Ryan Evans had been watching me dance. Not only had I been watched doing the one thing that I used to escape from the world and just be myself, but it had to be the one guy that I had a crush on for the last...well, as long as I could remember that watched me. Sure, he was shadowed a lot by his sister Sharpay, but I still thought he was a confident person. He acted, he sang, he danced, and he may not have been the smartest person in the world, but that wasn't important to me. Not that it mattered anyway. I would never admit my crush to him. I would just keep being invisible until I graduated and got to be invisible to a whole new group of people in the real world.

I was torn slightly from my state of panic as I heard his voice. "You're a pretty good dancer you know." I tried to open my mouth to thank him, but no words would come out. Before I knew it he came up to the stage and was standing a few feet away from me. I could hear my heart starting to pound and hoped with all my might that he couldn't hear it.

"You should try out for the musical this year. Well, you wouldn't be able to beat out Sharpay of course, or even Gabriella, but I heard that the show this year is going to have some pretty hard dancing roles." He looked rather amused while he said this, probably because of my very flustered state.

"But I don't sing," I managed to squeak out,

"It doesn't really matter as long as you can show Ms. Darbus that you can dance. Not many people who are going to audition can, or at least, not very well. Plus, if you get the part I can help you on your singing if you need it." I felt myself turn red. "And you know," he grabbed at my glasses, pulling them off my face, "if you got some contacts and did a little something with your hair, you'd be rather pretty."

I definitely turned redder if that was even possible. He gave me back my glasses, grabbed his bag that he had left, and then exited the auditorium without another word.

I hastily put my glasses back on and turned off my music. There was no way that I would try out for the musical. I was a dancer, but I didn't act or sing. Plus, if I danced in a musical then I would become known by my fellow students. That definitely wasn't on my to-do list anytime soon, or ever!

I glanced at my watch. Lunch was almost over and I had to get to my locker before Spanish class. I grabbed my bag and exited the auditorium. Maybe I would be lucky and find out that the whole encounter with Ryan had just been a bad dream. Either way, I lowered my head slightly as I reached the hallway so that my hair would make a sort of curtain to keep my eyes from making contact with any other stray students in the hallway. Suddenly the few months we had left until graduation seemed like years.

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Whee! So how'd you like that for a first chapter? You know you want to review, right? Positive, constructive, negative...everything is accepted. Even though I may use any flames to burn term papers with. You've been warned.


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